Author and host of the hit OUTDOOR CHANNEL show SHOOTING GALLERY spouts off...

Friday, February 29, 2008

Any Day You Get a New Gun...

Picked up my T&E little Ruger .380 LCP today...I've only got a hundred or so rounds of .380 lying around, but I've got some Cor-Bon on the way. I'm gonna suck it up and order some of the Buffalo Bore .380 thumpers as well. Big on self-abuse and all. I need to get a couple of hundred rounds through it before I start carrying it.

I was actually going to the range tomorrow and put some rounds through that Para Carry 9, but instead it's at least half a day in the studio...then it's supposed to snow. We'll see...I really want to run some rounds through the Para...I've shot several of them, and they've been sweet, and I'm sort of half-way shopping for a new carry gun.

Looks like the FNH SCAR rifles are headed for the battlefield. This from CNN (strangely enough):

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Florida (CNN) -- No piece of equipment is more crucial to a soldier in the field than his rifle. And America's most elite troops are about to get a new series of rifles designed for their unique and dangerous missions.

CNN was given an exclusive look at two new rifles for an elite group of U.S. troops.

"The difference is, I'm gonna have a weapon that's gonna fit the situation," an Army Ranger staff sergeant said.

Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is about to start training its SEALs, Green Berets and other Special Operations troops in the use of Mark 16 and Mark 17 rifles.

Within a year, the new rifles should be in action against terrorists and insurgents in Iraq, Afghanistan and hot spots the public may never hear about.

The usually secretive SOCOM gave CNN an exclusive chance to see and even fire the new weapon recently at its headquarters near Tampa, Florida.

The contractors working with SOCOM to develop the weapon say it is more versatile and more accurate, jams less and lasts longer than the current rifle used by many Special Operations troops, the M-4.

The Mark 16 (Mk16) fires a 5.56 mm round, the same size used for decades in M-16s and M-4s. The Mk17 fires a larger 7.62 mm round that is used in some U.S. military machine guns, but it's not the same round as in the AK-47, the world's most widely used assault rifle.

Both of the new rifles are designed to kill regardless of the situation.

Yeah well, one supposes that's what battle rifles are designed to do. The SCAR Heavy is the best 7.62/.308 out there, best one I've ever fired, at least. Every time I get ready to plop down the money for an FN/FAL, I think, "Wait...wait..."